9th PICE Region X Technical Conference

September 20 -21, 2018

at Hotel de Susana & Resort, Valencia City, Bukidnon

“Technical Advancement for Disaster Awareness,

Mitigation and Management”

https://www.freepik.com
Empirical Models of the Soil Thickness and Shear
Strength with the Slope Angle for Deterministic
Landslide Hazard Assessment

CHERYL F. DALEON
Faculty, Civil Engineering Department, CMU
Musuan, Maramag, Bukidnon, Philippines
Philippines Vulnerability to Climate Hazard

http://blogs.agu.org
Why is the Philippines a geohazard-prone?
PHILIPPINES

http://www.mindoro.com
 • Philippines with 7,107 islands
Philippines lies in a tropical region along
the typhoon belt in the
Pacific.

• Approximately 2O tropical
cyclones enter the Philippine
Area of Responsibility yearly
of which 10 will be typhoons
and 5 being destructive.

• The Philippines is “the most

exposed country in the world
to tropical storms”
Time Magazine article in 2013
Philippines geologic setting is mostly mountainous.
 Landslide is a worldwide PROBLEM

• Can cause human injury and loss of life.

• Loss of industrial, agricultural and forest

productivity and natural environment

• High cost of repair, replacement and

maintenance of infrastructure.

Lepore et al., 2011

 In February 17, 2006, due to typhoon Canchu, the
mountainside collapsed and buried the village of
Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte, Philippines wherein 139 died
and 973 missing or presumed dead (http://people.uwec.edu).
 A Call from the Government
“A call for a more accurate, integrated and responsive disaster prevention
and mitigation system especially in high-risk areas of the country, in order to
ensure that during a natural disaster the possible loss of lives is prevented
and the possible damage of properties is reduced or minimized.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST)
Response to the Government’s Call

NOAH - National Operational

Assessment of Hazard

“It envisioned to have a

disaster-free Philippines
through open access to
accurate, reliable and
timely landslide hazard
information”.

www.noah.dost.gov.ph
 Important:
Map out
unstable areas

in order to ensure the

safety of the people and
delineate suitable areas
for development
(Rabonza, et al., 2014).
 The Bureau,
As the within
de facto the framework
Geological Survey of its
themembership
Philippines, in the
Mines
National Disaster Coordinating
and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)Council (NDCC),
is tasked has been
to perform tasked
geological
to perform
surveys andgeohazard mappinginonly
conduct studies theingeosciences,
relation to landslides
including and
the
geologically-controlled flooding.
identification of all types of geohazards (Aurelio, 2006).
 MGB’s Approach
on Landslide Hazard
Assessment

Table 1. Sample for a fact

sheet, methodology and rating
system in the determination of
Landslide Hazard Susceptibility
as used in the MGB Geohazard
Mapping Program.
Source: MGB-UNDP, 2004
 MGB
GIS was
derived
used its
in landslide
the map combination
hazard susceptibility
and subjective
zones
through
weights were
qualitative
assigned map
to each
combination
unit in the using
parameter
lithology,
map
geomorphology,
(http://www.mgb.gov.ph)
slope gradient and fault distance.
 MGB’s Landslide Hazard Mapping Output

The MGB’s map may provide a good estimate of risk. But the
result of this method cannot be used directly in engineering
design process and landslide mitigation.
 Landslide
susceptibility
assessment
methods

Quantitative Qualitative Direct Indirect

Statistical Deterministic To analyze the safety of

the slope is to determine
the factor of safety.

Slope Factor of Safety

Stability
Models - LEM (FS)

Van Westen et al. 2006

 Factor of Safety

Design process

Mitigation level

Deterministic models provide the best quantitative

information on landslide susceptibility that can be directly used
in engineering works.
 Factor of Safety

To analyze the safety of τf Resisting Force

the slope is to determine FS = =
the factor of safety. τd Driving Force

Where
𝜏𝑓 - is the average shear strength of the soil
𝜏𝑑 - is the average shear stress developed along
the potential failure surface

When FS<1 landslide occur

 Factor of Safety

𝑐 + 𝛾 − 𝑚 ∗ 𝛾𝑤 ∗ 𝑧 ∗ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2 𝛽 ∗ 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜙
𝐹𝑆 =
𝛾 ∗ 𝑧 ∗ 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛽 ∗ 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽
as recommended by Brunsden and Prior (1979)

Where,
γ - unit weight of soil
m - ground water depth/soil thickness ratio (zw /z)
zw - height of water table above failure surface
z - depth of failure surface below the terrain surface
γw - unit weight of water
β - the terrain surface inclination
φ - angle of internal friction
c - cohesion

When FS<1 landslide occur

 Soil Thickness

Soil
The thickness
soil thickness
is aonwell-known
hillslope, which
factor often
controlling
coincides
shallow
with
landsliding.
the failure depth,
Notwithstanding,
is a criticalits
parameter
spatial organisation
in performingover
a slope-
large
areas
instability
is poorly
analysis
understood
(Parchri,(Segoni,
2015). et al., 2012).

Soil thickness

21
Soil Thickness vs Slope Angle
Sample outcome of the FS calculation

http://www.gis-studio.nl

𝑐 + 𝛾 − 𝑚 ∗ 𝛾𝑤 ∗ 𝑧 ∗ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2 𝛽 ∗ 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜙
𝐹𝑆 =
𝛾 ∗ 𝑧 ∗ 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛽 ∗ 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽
 Shear Strength

Shear stress

Shear strength

Shear strength depends on interaction between particles

Shear strength is one of the most important properties of soil. It
and shear failure occur when particles slides over each other
is the resistance provided by soil to sliding along the plane inside it.
due to excessive shearing stresses.

Solangi, A. et al. (12CE37)

 Spatial variation of soil thickness and shear
strength parameters (cohesion and friction angle) are
crucial in large scale slope stability analysis for landslide
susceptibility assessment.

However, applying purely quantitative method is

challenging, expensive and time consuming.
 Determination of the Spatial Variation of Soil Thickness
from Previous Studies

A uniform soil
Lee and Ho (2009)
thickness was used Some researchers
in previous analyses adopted the wetness included sparse soil
of shallow landslides index to determine thickness sampling
the spatial data in the analysis
(e.g., Montgomery
distribution of soil of shallow landslides.
and Dietrich, 1994;
thickness for slope
Dietrich et al., 1995;
instability analysis.
Wu and Slide, 1995),
 Determination of Shear Strength

Obasi (2005) stated that accurate measurement of shear

strength can be difficult, time consuming and costly.
 Shear Strength

As a result of this there is now a

tendency in countries all over the world in order to
towards building up correlation speed-up the
equations between the soil properties
and the so-called soil indices design process.

This is most pertinent in third world countries where up-to-

date testing equipment are lacking together with the trained
manpower needed to operate them.
Soil thickness, soil strength and slope angle

While the data on soil

thickness and shear
strength are hardly
determined

The data on slope angle can be

readily available through the DEM
from agencies like Phil-LiDAR or
National Mapping and Resource
Information Authority (NAMRIA)

Objective: This study aim to correlate soil thickness

and shear strength with the slope angle.
 Study Area
Philippines

https://www.google.com.ph
 Significance of the Study

Significant contribution in the

field of civil engineering
particularly in disaster risk
reduction and management.

Landslide assessment can be It is timely due to climate

made rapidly, and site change and due to the fact
investigation and laboratory that our country is exposed
costs are minimized. to geo-hazards.

Improve the deterministic

method of landslide hazard
assessment which is
particularly appropriate for
mapping large areas. 35
Work Flow for Derivation of Empirical Model
 Empirical Models

Soil thickness
decreases with
increasing slope angle.

Slope Average
Angle Depth
< 28° 2.16 m
28°- 32° 1.0 m
> 32° 0.5 m

The high coefficient of determination R2 = 0.9284 indicates a

good correlation between soil thickness and slope angle.
 The correlation between cohesion and slope angle resulted to R2 =
0.7326, it means that more than 50% of the cohesion can be predicted by
slope angle for the range of slope angles considered from 5 – 50 degrees.
Hence, it can be used to predict the cohesion in the study area.
 The low correlation between the friction angle and slope angle can
be attributed to the fact that the model is derived from the test results
of four different soil classifications (CH, MH, CL and ML) which have
different physical characteristics such as shapes, roundness, size and etc.
Improved Model with Slope Angle ≥ 27°

Proposed Empirical Model

 Validation of the Model
Predicted vs measured soil thickness
4.5

4.0
Predicted Soil Thickness (m)

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0 y = 1.0537x - 0.1265

R² = 0.9326
0.5

0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
Measured Soil Thickness (m)
Figure 4.23 Soil thickness map of the study area
Figure 4.23 Cohesion map of the study area
Figure 4.23 Friction angle map of the study area
Geo-hazard Map Geology Map
 Conclusion

• The correlation of soil thickness with the slope angle is best

described by an exponential function. The equation has R2 of
0.9284 indicating high correlation between the two parameters.

• Furthermore, the model is successfully validated. Thus, the slope

angles can be used to predict the soil thickness in this geology
under study.

• The empirical models of cohesion and friction angle with the

slope angle demonstrated a good correlation and can be used to
predict the spatial variation of the parameters in the area.
Thank you for listening!